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As far as we can tell, Medieval French families were significantly bigger than modern western families - averaging perhaps around six. In contrast, modern France has an average household size of 2.38. Note the standard disclaimers apply: pre-modern demographic statistics are extremely patchy, and often must be interpreted with laborious reconstructions.
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Blood ties were just as strong in Rome, and Rome was only one element of Ancient times, all of which had dynastic lines just as much or more as France and England in the Middle Ages.
Emperors were chosen by the Military, and in times of trouble the current Emperor might be toppled and a usurper put in place, and the relatives of the former regime killed. ...

Crossbows were "slowfiring" weapons. In this regard, they were less valuable than longbows.
The advantage of a crossbow was its accuracy--in skilled hands. In this regard, it didn't take much to be a "random" crossbowman, but it did take a lot to be able to fire a few arrows accurately. That's not too different from a "marksman" or a "sharpshooter" being ...

I will start by making two suppositions (OP: please correct me if this is not what was meant).
The question is relative to a specific time (Middle Ages, approx. 10th to 14th centuries), place (Western Europe) and society (feudalism).
The term "prince" may be taken in a broad sense, to include other nobles with some local power base (barons, counts, ...)
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It's not a question of "accurate shooting", it's a question of becoming expert in the use and maintenance of a crossbow and connection to an industrial culture for making and repairing them. Real crossbows are quite sophisticated devices and in their time were very expensive.
The mercenary corps of crossbowmen were relatively wealthy soldiers who invested ...

Not exactly about crossbowmen, but I am currently reading about almogavars, another group of specially trained militia of the age, and I think I can extract some ideas.
Almogavars were Catalano-Aragonese light infantry, with a special ability for throwing darts (some writers of the era claim they could kill knights). Some points for such specialization ...

Fish was a major source of protein for peasants and regular folks in the Middle Ages. Forest hunting was often reserved for the lord's use, but special basket traps were placed into streams to catch unwary fish.
There was actually a law in England that forbade masters from giving apprentices salmon for dinner more than three times a week, rather than the ...

At the rising of heraldry we could say many of coats of arms were assuming arbitrarily. But after the institution of colleges of heralds(arms), especially in Western Europe, the practice of assuming of arms became more and more regulate during the time. It is obvious that at the beginning there were no laws even in designing(devices) of arms, let alone ...

Here is a figure of homicide rates from Stephen Pinker's Better Angels of our Nature:
I wouldn't worry about medical science interfering with these trends much, as doctors were as likely to hurt patients as help them until the 19th century.
Really high quality crime stats only started to be collected in the 19th century, so Pinker's measures here are ...

As others have mentioned, leather has been to preferred choice of material for the soles of footwear for thousands of years. An interesting fact is that one of the technologies that gave the Romans such an advantage was their hardened leather sandals which allowed them to march 20 miles a day, every day. Untreated leather and animal skins would wear out ...

Leather for sure. My boots are all leather except for a piece of rubber at the bottom of the heel. "Tough, firm, resistant to wear" exactly describes traditional leather use. The soles and any other parts are replaced as needed; my "cheap" boots as a teen lasted 10 years, and my current Ostrich ropers are 15 years old and "like new". Nylon/rubber/synthetic ...

One kind of shoe not mentioned in the other answers are those using bast soles. "Bast" is fiber from tree bark. Bast shoes or lapti, were once worn by poorer members of Northern European cultures. These were usually made from birch or linden. They are woven like a basket, and so are quite distinct from the wooden clog or hard wooden-soled shoes mentioned in ...

In Europe, different demands were placed on shoes based on different climates.
People around the Mediterranean tended to wear sandals with wooden soles and leather thongs due to the warmer climate.
If complete coverage was required, the entire foot might be encased in leather.
In some places or situations, a clog would be worn, particularly if one was ...

Leather was probably the most common material.
The most basic transportation technology of the medieval era was the foot ... Those who did not go barefoot ... wore simple shoes. These shoes were made from leather, including the flat sole.
- Wigelsworth, Jeffrey R. Science and Technology in Medieval European Life. Greenwood Publishing Group, 2006.
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Battles were generally not fought till no men left but till one side fled / retreated. The casaulties were often not that high compared to the size of the army even for the side who lost. This shows that the losing army usually fled or surrendered well before coming even close to annihilation. Thus breaking the moral of the enemy was a huge (possibly the ...